Experienced fishers have long been aware of the advantages of cool and cold weather fishing. However, cool and cold weather fishing is accompanied by the discomfort of cold hands for the fisher. Experienced fishers have generally disdained from the use of conventional gloves during cool or cold weather fishing because conventional gloves prevent the fisher from achieving maximum sensitivity to tugs on a rod or line by a fish. Experienced fishers find that maximum results are achieved if one of their hands has direct contact with the rod and/or line. Such direct contact cannot be achieved with conventional gloves or mitts.
To overcome these problems, I previously invented a mitt for rods having casting reels. This mitt, disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,675, includes a thermally insulated shell in which the hand of the fisher and the casting reel and a handle portion of the rod are completely enclosed. The casting rod and fishing line from the reel extend through apertures in the shell.
While this prior art structure is quite satisfactory for rods including casting reels, it cannot function as a mitt for keeping the hand of a fisher warm while the fisher is fishing with a rod and spinning reel having a bale. The bale must be manipulated by a digit of the hand gripping the rod. The reel is too cumbersome to be located in the mitt and hand-eye coordination is frequently important in manipulating the bale. If the bale were in the mitt such coordination could not be attained. In addition, it is not feasible for the fishing line from the spinning reel to be within the mitt confines.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved mitt for keeping the hand of a fisher warm while fishing with a rod and spinning reel having a bale.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved mitt for keeping the hand of a fisher warm while fishing with a rod and spinning reel having a bale, wherein the mitt enables the bale and fishing line, both of which are outside of the mitt, to be manipulated from within the mitt by a digit of the fisher.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a new and improved mitt for keeping the hand of a fisher warm while fishing with a rod and spinning reel having a bale wherein the hand of the fisher directly grasps the rod, to maximize the sensitivity of the fisher to tugs by prey that are coupled from the line to the rod, while enabling a digit of a hand of the fisher to manipulate the bale and line, even though the bale and line are outside of the mitt.